Chapter 4

Five Days Earlier

As the School Resource Officer led Jules to the office, she shivered. Although she tried to blame it on the cranked-up air-conditioning, she knew the cold air wasn’t the reason. This was it. These were her last few seconds to change her mind, to not go down the road of crime. She knew there was no turning back, though. Sam, Tio, Ty, and Dee had to get out of that house.

With the SRO’s attention fixed on the hall in front of him, Jules forcefully rubbed her eyes, trying to generate some redness. Her acting skills were minimal, and tears on command were way beyond her abilities. There was a reason why she’d been stage manager rather than the female lead in her high school’s production of Bye Bye Birdie.

“Thank you,” she told the SRO as she stepped through the office door he held open for her. He dipped his head to acknowledge her thanks and then left. Mrs. Juarez was behind the high counter, just as she’d been for the four years Jules had attended Lincoln High School, and probably twenty years before that.

“Hi, Mrs. Juarez.”

Recognition lit the older woman’s face. “Juliet Young! How good to see you again.”

“You too.” Despite the circumstances, Jules felt a flicker of nostalgia. “How are you?”

Mrs. Juarez rolled her eyes. “It’s the usual zoo here. There are always those few troublemakers, but I suppose they make life interesting. Not that you would know anything about being a problem child, since you were always an angel. What brings you in here?”

It wasn’t hard to put a quaver in her voice. “My dad…isn’t doing well. Courtney is with him, so I told her I’d pick up the kids and take them to the hospital.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry.” Mrs. Juarez hurried around to the front of the counter and enveloped her in a hug, sending a wave of guilt crashing over Jules. “You poor things.”

“Thank you.” She forced a smile, feeling like the worst scum in the universe. The thought that Mrs. Juarez might be blamed for releasing the kids to her occurred to Jules, but she forced the fresh surge of guilt from her mind. “Could you get the boys out of class?”

After a final squeeze, Mrs. Juarez released her and bustled behind the counter to sit in front of her computer screen. “Of course. Let’s see…Sebastian is in Mr. Hendrick’s class first period, Horatio is with Ms. Garnett and…sorry, dear, what’s your other brother’s name?”

Jules was impressed she knew two out of three off the top of her head. “Titus.”

“How could I forget that little scoundrel?” Mrs. Juarez chuckled, tapping at the keyboard. Ty must not have done anything too bad, though, judging by her amused tone. “Those twins are smart ones. Only thirteen and already freshmen. Very impressive.”

As Mrs. Juarez made the calls to the three classrooms, Jules caught herself before she could start to fidget, to shift from foot to foot and tap her fingers against her leg. She forced herself to be still, not wanting her twitchiness to give away her nervousness. If her father really had been hospitalized, it would be understandable for Jules to be upset, but there’d be no reason for her to be nervous.

It was just a few minutes before Tio arrived, quickly followed by Sam and Ty. Only Tio opened his arms for a hug, but Jules wasn’t surprised. Sam didn’t like to be touched, and Ty was at the stage where he found public hugs embarrassing. She squeezed Tio, pulling his lanky body close and getting a momentary release from the tension that gripped her insides.

“Thank you, Mrs. Juarez,” she called over her shoulder as they left, trying to resist shoving the boys out the door. Their presence made the plan seem suddenly plausible, and she wanted to grab all three and tear out of the school.

“Of course, dear. Please tell your father I’m thinking of him.”

“I will.” Giving the receptionist a final, forced smile, Jules closed the office door behind them and hurried after her brothers. They obviously felt the same need to flee, since she had to jog to keep up with their long strides. That could’ve also been because even the twins, at thirteen, were already significantly taller than she was.

All four of them were quiet as they pushed through the exterior doors and stepped into the muggy heat. When Ty opened his mouth, Jules shook her head. Even outside the school, she felt the creeping sense of being watched. She wondered if she’d feel secure when they were in her car, or when they had left Florida, or maybe when they were ensconced in their new lodgings. Something told her she’d never feel completely safe again, but she quickly slammed the door on that thought. This was getaway time. She had to concentrate on that.

She opened the trunk with a press of the key fob button, and the guys tossed in their backpacks. Tio grunted as he swung his off his shoulder, and Jules’s eyebrows rose as she looked at his overstuffed pack. The zippers looked like they were straining to stay closed. As she shut the trunk, she just hoped he’d included a change of clothes along with whatever other must-brings he’d packed.

The silence continued until they were loaded into the car, the twins in the back, and Jules had turned out of the parking lot onto a quiet residential street.

Sam’s voice was the first to break the silence. “T-thanks, Ju.”

Unable to resist, Jules reached over to squeeze his arm. She released him quickly, before he could get uncomfortable and pull away. “Sorry I couldn’t get y’all sooner.”

“That’s because you had to go all outlaw to get it done,” Ty said, bouncing in his seat. “That was awesome, like a prison break or something.”

When Tio didn’t say anything, Jules glanced at his tense face in the rearview mirror. “You okay, T?”

He didn’t answer for several seconds. Jules bounced her gaze between the road and her youngest half-brother’s face.

“It was difficult to decide what to pack,” he finally said.

Jules chewed on the inside of her lip. It figured that this would be hardest on Tio, since Courtney mostly left him alone. Change wasn’t his favorite thing. “I know. Are you in the middle of a project?”

“Seed dormancy. I’m working on reducing pre-harvest sprouting.”

“Sorry you had to leave it.” Attempting to lighten his mood, she sent him a smile in the rearview mirror. “Unless that’s what you have stuffed in your backpack?”

Although she’d been joking, his response was solemn. “No. I brought the data files, though.”

Her stomach lurched. “You didn’t bring your laptop, did you?”

“Course not,” Ty answered for him. “We didn’t bring any electronics that could be traced. T’s stuff is on a flash drive. Oh, and I turned on all our cell phones and hid them on the Gator the groundskeeper guy uses. That way, it’ll look like we’re at school if someone tries to use our phones to track us.”

“Smart, Ty.”

He shrugged, obviously trying to look less pleased at the praise than he actually was. “It was Sam’s idea.”

Turning into the St. Francis School parking lot, she glanced at Sam. “Good thinking, Sam.”

His head was turned toward the window, so she couldn’t see his expression. “I saw it in a m-m-m…” His frustrated exhale was audible. “On TV.”

Frowning, she pulled into a visitor’s parking spot. The stuttering worried her, but so did grabbing Dee, and kidnapping trumped all other problems at the moment. “I have new phones for you. First, though, let’s get Dee.”

Ty whooped and reached for the door handle.

“Hang on.” All three boys looked at her. “Sad faces. Dad’s in the hospital, remember?” Sam and Tio already had their mournful expressions in place, and Ty tried to mute his excitement, with mixed results. “Hmm. Ty, maybe just keep your head down. Y’all ready?” They nodded. “Let’s go.”

Just like at the high school, silence fell over their group as they entered St. Francis. The office was right past the door, and they filed inside, Jules at the front.

“May I help you?” The woman behind the desk wore a dark suit and a crucifix. Her nameplate announced that she was Sister Mary Augustine. Jules wondered whether lying to a nun was an automatic go-directly-to-hell card, and then pinched the back of her hand sharply to refocus her wandering brain.

“Yes. I’m Juliet Young, Desdemona Courtland’s sister.” She realized she’d forgotten to redden her eyes before leaving the car. “Our father went to the hospital this morning, and my stepmother asked if I could pick up Dee and bring her there.”

This time, Jules didn’t get a hug. Instead, Sister Mary Augustine frowned at her before turning to her computer. After a few tense seconds with the only sound being the click of the mouse, she shook her head.

“You’re not on the list.”

Jules’s insides jumped. She’d been afraid of that. If Mrs. Juarez had checked her brothers’ approved pick-up list, Jules wouldn’t have been on that one, either. If not for stealthy visits and burner phones, she wouldn’t have any relationship with her siblings at all. Ever since Jules had started her crusade to get custody, Courtney had gone from simply hating her stepdaughter to loathing her with the power of a thousand suns.

“Oh.” She feigned surprise. “Well, her brothers are all here. Are Sebastian, Horatio, or Titus on the list?”

Sister Mary Augustine didn’t even look at her screen. “No.”

Desperation started to seep in, but Jules fought it back as she attempted to pull a solution from her whirling brain. “Even if we could get her to leave Dad’s side, poor Courtney isn’t in any condition to drive. Is there some way I could pick up Dee?”

Pressing her lips together in a tight line, Sister Mary Augustine shook her head.

“Maybe I could call Dee’s mom and get permission?” Jules frantically tried to think of someone who could pretend to be Courtney. Too bad their father was “hospitalized,” or Dennis could impersonate him for the length of a phone conversation.

It didn’t matter anyway, since the nun was still shaking her head. “Only people on the list can remove students from the building.”

Think, Jules! Think! No avenues of persuasion occurred to her, and she gave Sister Mary Augustine a weak smile. “Okay. Thank you.”

Instead of responding to the courtesy, the nun just glared at them until they were once again in the hall. Even when the door was closed, she still scowled through the large window. It would be impossible to pass by the office without Sister Mary Augustine seeing them.

“New plan,” Jules hissed quietly, ushering them away from the window. “Ty, you’re the nun-distractor. Sam, I know you haven’t had Driver’s Ed yet, but do you think you could start my car and move it to the east side? When we came around the school, it looked like there’s a door there.”

“I th-hink s-so.”

The uncertainty in his voice worried her, but she still dug her keys out of her pocket and handed them to him. He shoved through the front door as she turned to Tio. “T, you’re with me.”

His eyes grew wide.

“Ty, go.” Jules tipped her head toward the office door.

He took a step and then stopped. “What should I say?”

“Anything! Just distract her for a few seconds so we can get by the windows. Pretend like you’re sick or something. Once we’re past, head to the car.”

With a resolute nod, Ty reentered the office. Jules watched, waiting for her brother to pull the eagle-eyed nun’s gaze away. Even through the closed door, she heard some realistic-sounding gagging noises. Sister Mary Augustine apparently found them to be convincing, as well, since her horrified attention focused on Ty.

Grabbing Tio’s hand, Jules ran down the hall. She knew Dee was in Ms. McCree’s fourth-grade classroom for everything except math and reading. Dee had also told her that this was Ms. McCree’s first year teaching, and Jules hoped she could use that to her advantage.

She quickly figured out that the classrooms were arranged around a square with the lunchroom and library in the center. Each door was marked with the grade and teacher, making it easy to find Dee’s room. Jules was panting from nerves and exertion, so she took a few seconds to get her breath before she knocked. Tio hovered nervously behind her.

A woman opened the door. If not for her lack of uniform, Dee would’ve thought she was one of the students.

“Hi.” Her voice was still breathless from her dash. “I’m Juliet Young, Desdemona’s sister.”

“Hello.” Ms. McCree looked confused.

“Our dad is in the hospital. Dee’s mom sent me to get her.”

“Oh.” The teacher’s face puckered, and Jules wondered if she was about to get her second sympathy hug of the day. “I’m so sorry.”

Over Ms. McCree’s shoulder, Jules could see her stepsister pulling on her backpack, and she had to smother a smile. Smart Dee knew the plan, and she was getting ready to go.

“Thank you.” Jules forced herself back into a grief-stricken expression.

“You’ll need to go to the office first, though.”

“Oh, I did! There’s a boy there who was throwing up, so Sister Mary Augustine told us to just come here and get Dee out of class.”

Ms. McCree knotted her fingers together, looking anxious. “I’m not sure…”

“It’s okay, Ms. McCree,” Dee said, slipping around her teacher to stand next to Jules. “My sister’s on the list. I should go to the hospital now to see my dad.”

Jules resisted pulling Dee into a hug and took her hand instead. On her list of things to be concerned about later, Jules added the ease with which Dee lied, next to Sam’s worsening stutter.

“Well, I guess that’s okay.” The teacher still looked like she was about to change her mind, so Jules started moving away from the classroom.

“Thanks, Ms. McCree.” With Tio close behind them, she and Dee speed-walked toward the side door she’d spotted earlier. Morning sunlight illuminated the glass pane set in the door, making it look like a beacon, and Jules increased her pace until they were nearly running. She reached out to push the door handle and then yanked back her hand. “Dee, the fire alarm isn’t going to go off when we open this, is it?”

Dee shook her head, blond curls bouncing with the movement. “No. We go out this way to get to the soccer field.”

Blowing out a relieved breath, Jules pushed down the handle and opened the door, holding it as Dee and Tio hurried through. She grinned when she saw the Camry sitting at the curb, the driver’s door open for her. Sam was circling behind the car, heading for the front passenger seat, and Ty climbed out of the backseat rushing toward them, grinning with obvious pride of his nun-distraction skills.

Jules’s happy smile dropped when the car began to roll forward.

With a yelp, Sam grabbed at the open door to catch the runaway Camry. It slipped out of his grasp. Jules ran toward the car, but it picked up speed, the slight downward incline of the lot allowing it to roll straight toward a blue, new-looking hybrid.

“No, no, no, no, no!” Even in her panic, she kept her voice low, not wanting to draw attention from anyone inside the school. If her car crashed, however, people—like Sister Mary Augustine—were going to come running. Dee would be yanked back into school, the police and Jules’s stepmother would be called, and that would be the end.

Jules ran faster, sprinting toward the Camry, her heart pounding more from fear than exertion. She drew closer, but it continued on its course, headed straight for the hybrid like a missile locked on its target. She could almost hear the crunching sound her car would make as it connected, the shrill squeals of the alarm, and she shot forward in a burst of panic-fueled speed.

Catching the driver’s-side door, Jules dove into the car, her foot fumbling for the brake pedal. She hit it hard, and her head jerked forward at the abrupt halt. When she raised her gaze, the hybrid’s bumper was hidden by the front of the Camry. The two cars couldn’t have been more than an inch or two apart.

“S-s-sorry!” Sam ran up to the still-open passenger door, his eyes huge from the scare. Jules imagined hers were pretty wide, too.

“No problem,” she said, sucking in air and forcing her hundredth fake smile of the day. With a shaking hand, she reached to pop the trunk. “You got it here, and that’s the important thing. We can work on your parking skills later.”

Sam dropped into the passenger seat, as if his legs refused to support him, and Ty climbed into the back.

“Whoa,” was all Ty said. Jules knew he had to have been terrified for him to be robbed of words. Glancing in the rearview mirror, she saw Tio adding Dee’s backpack to the three already in the trunk. He slammed it closed, and the two of them hustled into the backseat. Jules did a quick head count before backing away from the hybrid. Her whole body was still shaking, and she tightened her hands on the steering wheel in an attempt to hide it.

She turned out of the school parking lot, glanced at Sam, and checked the rearview mirror again. Giddiness rose in her, sweeping away the vestiges of her earlier fear.

“Y’all?” All four of her siblings looked at her. “We did it.” Her laugh was half-hysterical, and she quickly sucked it back in before she scared the kids. “You have officially been kidnapped.”

Ty’s cheer was joined by Dee and even Tio. Grinning—and possibly hyperventilating a bit—Jules looked at Sam. His head was tipped down, but his mouth curled the tiniest bit at the corners. That hint of a smile was the happiest she’d seen Sam in years. It made everything worth it.

Jules was a full-fledged criminal now, and it felt good.